Norwegian prosecutors announced on Friday they would not pursue war crimes charges against Israeli officials, including former prime minister Ehud Olmert, over the Gaza Strip offensive. Six Norwegian lawyers brought a case against Olmert and nine others in April for alleged offense during the conflict in December-January. The Scandinavian country's courts were recently given universal jurisdiction in human rights matters, but prosecutors said the Gaza case had nothing to do with Norway. "We are not saying there were no war crimes. We are simply saying there is no reason to open an investigation in this case," Norwegian chief prosecutor Siri Frigaard told AFP.
TORTURE: 2 Secret Reasons that drove the US to Torture - by Chris Stevenson
"President Obama may be clearing the way to backtrack on his promise of over 120 days earlier not to have the Bush bunch face legal consequences. Recently he vowed not to prosecute CIA employees, his Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel said he wouldn't seek indictment of Bush Administration lawyers. Whom then does that leave Obama to mess with? The same people trying to vilify him after he told the world he would cut Bush and his gang-bangers; Cheney, Rove, Condi, and Rumsfeld a break. Does this mean Gonzales (who said the Geneva Convention was "obsolete") may skip charges altogether? Obama's detractors claim this wouldn't be good for national morale, I call it a royal flush."
Note EU-Digest: There needs to be a US equivalent of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial to deal with this.
Georgia president refuses to resign, lauds democracy
A day after tens of thousands of people rallied to demand his resignation, President Mikheil Saakashvili declared yesterday that he would not give up power but said he would do nothing to interfere with continuing protests against his government.Saakashvili offered to begin discussions with opposition leaders to try to lower tensions and to agree on changes to the constitution and government. He emphasized that the peaceful nature of the rally on Thursday proved that Georgia was developing well as a democracy.
BBC reports that his main error, opposition parties say, was to lead the country into war with Russia last year and plunge the country into what they call a crisis.Up to 60,000 people attended Thursday's opposition rally in the capital. Hundreds remained in the city centre overnight. The BBC has discovered evidence that Georgia may have committed war crimes in its attack on its breakaway region of South Ossetia in August. Eyewitnesses have described how its tanks fired directly into an apartment block, and how civilians were shot at as they tried to escape the fighting. Research by the international investigative organization Human Rights Watch also points to indiscriminate use of force by the Georgian military, and the possible deliberate targeting of civilians.
